


love can tell a million stories

by laurahughes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 5+1 Things, Bisexual Sam Wilson, Fluff, Friendship, Gay Bucky Barnes, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, except it's just 5 things, pride month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 16:29:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laurahughes/pseuds/laurahughes
Summary: 5 ways Sam and Bucky celebrate their first pride month together.





	love can tell a million stories

**Author's Note:**

> happy pride month ❤️

**1\. throw a pride party**

The world around him spins just a little when he flops down on the couch next to Sam who's five levels deep into a conversation with Natasha. Bucky throws his arm around his shoulders and snuggles up closer to him, closing his eyes and pressing his nose into the crook of Sam’s neck. He thinks he can hear Nat laughing. _Oh, bite me, Romanoff_ , he thinks.

‘Hey, baby,’ Sam says and his hand starts combing through his hair gently.

Bucky murmurs something unintelligibly and squeezes his other arm around Sam’s waist because, well, his boyfriend is really comfy, sue him. So comfy he could probably stay there forever, pressed up against him.

‘I think your boy is all tapped out, Wilson,’ Natasha giggles.

‘Fuck you, Romanoff,’ he answers because if Nat is honest to God _giggling_ , that means she must be as bad as he is.

He raises his head and looks up at Sam and actually has to blink a couple of times because, wow, his mouth is open and raised in a warm smile and so, so inviting. He thinks about kissing him right now, in front of Romanoff and the rest of the party. But there’s no way that’d end up well, so.

He reaches to grab the glass he left on the table and presses it into Sam’s hand. ‘Got you another drink.’

Sam makes an amused sound and strokes his finger along Bucky’s when their hands meet. ‘Thanks, baby. You good?’

Bucky left half an hour ago to hang out with Steve for a while, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the number of people around them. He told Sam to stay and have fun, he just needed some fresh air for a bit. So he drank beer with Steve on the balcony and promptly returned to the party after feeling recharged and ready to have some more fun.

He smiles lazily. ‘Yeah, it’s great,’ he moves his eyes to Nat, who sits on the floor, hair dishevelled and lipstick smudged around her upper lip. ‘You know how to throw a party, I’ll give you that.’

Nat looks pleased at that. ‘Hey, thanks. Your first official pride month, Barnes. I did my best.’

Nat had been planning the party since March. Apparently, she's pretty big on celebrating pride month and thought it was only appropriate by starting it off with a big party. It wasn’t actually huge, mind you; 20 or 30 people in total, mostly Avengers and their friends and family. But you could’ve thought it was the Met Gala by the amount of planning it took to get it done. Because, as Bucky has learnt, no one takes planning pride parties more seriously than Natasha Romanoff.

‘I liked the rainbow drinks,’ he says. And how they tasted.

‘Clearly,’ Sam says and rolls his eyes fondly.

Bucky laughs a little at that. ‘Just trying to have fun, baby.’

Sam takes Bucky’s hand in his and raises it to press a small kiss to his metal fingers. Bucky feels a shiver run down his spine at how gentle and full of love such a small gesture can be.

‘Good. Hey, we haven’t taken any selfies with the flags yet. Wanna get in on that?’

Nat basically jumps in her seat. ‘I can take the pictures. Just let me grab the flags. Bi or gay?’

‘Both,’ Bucky replies before Sam can even open his mouth.

Natasha stands up and runs out of the room, patting Bucky’s cheek as she passes him. Sam laughs at her and Buck can’t get enough of the sound of it. He presses his hand to grab Sam’s jaw and uses the grip to move his head forward. Their lips meet in the middle, sweet and delicate. Sam tastes of beer and chips and Bucky tries to drink his taste in.

He rests his forehead against Sam’s when they pull away, stroking his fingers against the back of Sam’s head. His heart feels so full of love, so sweet and warm as if there’s honey spilling out of with, and Bucky tries to hold on and share all of it with Sam.

‘It’s so nice,’ he babbles, desperate to articulate how he’s feeling and to get Sam to understand how happy he is. ‘I mean, it’s just nice, being here. Being open. I never had it, you know? I have had… this. God, sorry, I don’t know how to explain it…’

Sam chuckles, deep in his throat, but fondly, not mocking. ‘No, I understand. Baby, I really do.’

And the amazing thing is, Bucky knows that he does.

* * *

**2\. buy and wear lgbt merchandise**

‘Oh my God, you’re so dumb.’

Bucky can’t believe his eyes. Steve Rogers, the man who’s beaten countless Nazis, took down terrorist organizations, and battled aliens, _the fucking Captain America_ , is sitting inside Maria Hill’s conference room, hair still wet from the shower, wearing a t-shirt that says ‘ _Chicken nuggets turned me gay_ ’.

Bucky is fucking dreaming, that’s the only rational explanation for this. Or he’d been kidnapped by Hydra and they’d fucked with his brain again.

Steve just shrugs. ‘It’s funny.'

‘You ain’t even gay.’

‘It’s basically an umbrella term at this point, Nat taught me this,’ Steve said, waving his hand a little in a 'never mind that' gesture.

Bucky grunts because, honestly, he doesn’t know this shit, so he can’t really argue about it. ‘Whatever. I can’t believe the American icon is wearing a t-shirt that implies eating nuggets is gay.’

‘That’s just because they didn’t have a _Real Men Eat Ass_ t-shirt in XXXL.’

‘What the _fuck_ , Rogers?!’

He’s saved from the rest of this discussion when Nat walks through the door, hair pulled up in the shortest ponytail he’s ever seen. She’s wearing a red sweatshirt, zipped up strategically to hide her t-shirt.

‘What are you fighting about at 7am? Haven’t you had coffee yet? Hey, nice shirt, Steve.’

Bucky pinches the bridge of his nose. ‘What the fuck is happening?’

‘I like yours too, but Steve is winning,’ she says, taking a sip of her iced coffee and sitting down on the table. As if there aren't 15 chairs right in front of her.

Bucky glances down at his NASA gay shirt. ‘Betrayal, Romanoff! Mine is so much better than Steve’s.’

‘It’s nerdy.’

‘No, it’s not! NASA is cool. Space is cool.’

‘Have you ever seen an alien? Like, one that came from space? Because I have, they’re ugly and evil. Space is dumb.’

‘You’re oppressing space so hard right now. God, just because some aliens are evil…’

‘Okay, guys, zip it, you two,’ Steve says, seemingly tired with the turn this conversation’s taken. Or maybe Nat is right and he really hasn’t had his coffee yet.

Bucky sighs and raises his hands, not exactly admitting defeat, but just admitting he doesn’t want to have this argument. But he’d win it if he wanted to. Nat just raises her eyebrows at him.

‘Anyway, what about you, where's your pride shirt, Nat?’ Steve asks, desperate to change the subject.

Natasha squints at Bucky some more before coming to a decision to let it go. She unzips the hoodie, takes it off and throws it on a nearby chair, exposing the white t-shirt with ‘ _All cools girls are lesbians_ ’ written in red ink.

It also features a drawing of vintage lesbians. It’s pretty cool.

‘It’s cute,’ Bucky says. Steve nods his head enthusiastically.

‘I love it.’

‘Thanks, boys,’ she replies, smiling warmly at them.

It’s morning like this that Bucky likes to remember when he’s on missions, cold, angry, and frightened. Stolen moments of pure friendship, open and accepting. No one is here to judge anyone. It’s just Bucky and Steve and Natasha, it’s just Bucky and his friends. Who love him and will never leave him.

‘I’m still winning the contest,’ Steve says and the spell breaks.

‘You gotta be kidding me.’

‘Rogers, if you think for one moment this shirt is better than mine…’

They yell at each other for a few seconds, arguing about whose shirt is the coolest, when suddenly Sam walks into the office. As soon as they see him (or, more precisely, his t-shirt), they all shut up.

‘What?’ he asks, looking down at himself self-consciously.

Steve giggles and Bucky physically has to stifle a grown.

‘Shit, Sam, I love you, but you gotta take that off.’

When Sam refuses, Bucky stops playing around and rips the t-shirt in half while it’s still on Sam's shoulders. 5 minutes later, Maria Hill walks in and steps on a piece of black cotton with the words ‘ _Real men eat ass_ ’.

* * *

 **3\. donate to LGBT nonprofits**   **and activate for the LGBT community**

Bucky’s fiasco with the media is what triggered this mess, he’s well aware, thank you very much. It started when some reporter saw him with a rainbow button, ran up to him, and recorded as he straight up asked him if he was accepting of homosexuals. Bucky flushed and said ‘Be hard not to when you’re gay’ before he could even think about what he was saying.

So, that’s how he ended up outing himself.

It wasn’t new, not really. Steve came out as soon as he got defrosted and Sam’s past relationships with men were a well known fact. Natasha and Sharon weren’t exactly hiding, either. But the thing was, except for Steve, none of them really thought about the political side of it. Maybe if someone asked them, they would have; but people were having more fun pretending all Avengers were straight.

So when Bucky’s unfortunate video made news, the public was faced to confront what they’d been turning away from for years: that most of their superheroes were gay. And bi. And lesbians.

‘You don’t have to do it, you know,’ Natasha says, looking at Bucky’s reflection in the mirror as he fixes the collar of his shirt. It has buttons. It’s tight and uncomfortable and Bucky hates it. ‘Sam and I got this, you don’t have to come with us.’

‘Yeah, I mean, I know. I want to be there, though. For support.’

Sam’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show isn’t mandatory, by any means. It wasn’t suggested by Maria or any of their handlers. It was Sam who walked in the door and did a big speech about how they should start openly advocating for the LGBT community, now that the cat was officially out of the bag. So he’s come to crack a few jokes with Fallon and then talk about the LGBT community while being his charming self.

And Bucky wants to be a part of this. Even if it scares the fuck out of him.

He comes out of the dressing room with Natasha and one of Fallon’s assistants escorts them backstage. They come up to a huge computer which shows live feed from the stage. Sam sits on the chair next to Fallon; he's gorgeous in his brand new blue suit, but more than that, he looks comfortable, a small, warm smile lighting up his face. Bucky comes up closer to the speakers to listen to what he’s saying.

‘…yeah, we’ve come a long way, but we can’t forget LGBT people are still suffering from discrimination, hate crime, and violence. And it’s not just Americans who are LGBT. There are countries where you can’t marry the person you love, countries where you can be persecuted and killed for being gay. That’s what I want everyone to remember, that our job is still not done.’

There’s a big applause and Bucky joins in. Natasha loops her arm around his and smiles at him. They share a look; yeah, trust Sam Wilson to get the message across. Bucky turns to watch the feed when the applause dies out.

‘That’s why the Avengers are starting a new foundation, the _Avengers Pride Foundation_. You can donate, you can auction a bunch of cool stuff from us, like my old goggles or a piece of Thor’s hair… I’m not joking, you can actually auction that. And all profits will go to LGBT organizations. We have a bunch of amazing goals, to help homeless LGBT youth, give them education, fund AIDS research, fund hotlines and centres. So donate if you can, and if you can’t, share it.’

There’s a loud applause again and Fallon joins in this time. Bucky can’t keep his eyes off the computer, notices the way Sam ducks his head a little and his eyes begin to glisten, like he’s honestly amazed at how people are taking this. And Bucky understands; he feels the same way. Fallon starts to speak and his assistant gestures for Natasha and Buck to start making their way to the stage.

‘What an amazing cause, _Avengers Pride Foundation_ , everyone go to the website and donate. Sam Wilson from the Avengers, it’s great to have you here, man. And now let’s welcome two more Avengers, ladies and gentlemen, Natasha Romanoff and James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, let's give them a warm welcome!’

He feels dizzy as he walks onstage, but Natasha is pressed up firmly against him, and she gives his hand a squeeze just before they go out. The lights are blinding and suddenly there’s hundreds of eyes on him and Bucky trips and almost falls down on live television. But strong hands catch him and pull him upright and as he looks up, he sees Sam’s brown eyes, staring at him warmly.

‘Okay, baby?’ he asks, squeezing his hand. He smiles at him and squeezes back before moving to take a seat.

Yeah, he’s okay.

* * *

**4\. support lgbt businesses and learn about lgbt history**

They walk in holding hands, something Bucky still finds so endearing and exciting even after months of doing it. Sometimes he wonder if he’ll ever get used to holding another man’s hand in public without looking around to check if someone’s watching them.

‘Woah,’ Sam murmurs as the door closes behind them and they take in what they’re seeing.

The café is a small place, a real hipster thing with exposed brick and makeshift furniture that looks used and second-hand. But that’s pretty much normal nowadays, so it’s not what grabs his attention. It’s rather the overwhelming number of colours that welcomes them. There’s pride flags draped around the walls, tiny rainbows painted on the tables, minimalist drawings of same-sex couples holding hands taped to the windows.

It’s very cute, is all.

But before Bucky can open his mouth to voice his amazement, there’s a familiar voice calling them from across the room. ‘Hey, guys!’

He turns to see Steve sitting by himself in the corner of the café, next to a vintage shelf that holds dozens of books. There’s one opened in his lap, Bucky notices, as he makes his way to the able.

Bucky and Sam share long hugs with Steve; it’s been almost 2 weeks since they last saw each other, as they spent most of the month on a long, undercover mission in Eastern Europe.

‘Well, you two look awful,’ Steve notices as he lets go of Sam.

Bucky squints at him. ‘That’s just rude.’

Steve rolls his eyes fondly. ‘No, I mean the scraps and all.’ He gestures to his own face, touching his finger to his left cheek, the place where Sam’s currently sporting a nasty cut.

Sam just shrugs, unfazed. ‘It turned out fine. Hey, we’ll go order, okay? Be back in a minute.’

They walk up to the counter. The barista is a small woman with pink curls that look lovely against her dark skin. She smiles at them and pretends not to know who they are as she takes their order.

‘Here you go, Mr Falcon, shit, I mean Sam!’ she says and her glasses almost fall off her nose when she hands them their coffee.

Bucky can’t stop laughing as they make their way back to Steve’s table. ‘Mr Falcon, sir!’

‘Oh, shut up,’ Sam groans and elbows him. Bucky smiles fondly and steals a kiss right there, in the middle of the café, just because he can.

They’re both sat down across from Steve when Bucky notices a tiny piece of paper glued to his cup.

‘What the hell? Did that barista give me her number?’

‘Of course not, you’re too gay and ugly,’ Steve says, not looking up from his phone.

‘Hey!’

‘It’s a thing they do around here,’ Steve continues, this time very patiently. ‘They give you pieces of trivia about LGBT history and community. Just for fun.’

‘Oh. Hey, that’s really cool,’ Sam says, unfolding his piece of paper with quick movements.

And after all this time, it still amazes Bucky how easy it is. That there’s a whole café run by openly gay people, where they give you very gay coffee and make you read cool, gay trivia about being gay. It’s all very gay and nice, he thinks.

‘ _Same-sex couples were common in Ancient Greece. The Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite military unit formed of same-sex couple who fought side by side in combat_.’ Sam reads.

Bucky blinks again and frowns. What now? ‘Wait, is that true? Shit, they never taught us that at school.’

‘What else is new, Buck?’ Steve sighs across the tables, looking at him with his sad, blue eyes.

He’s not sad, though. He’s happy, shit, he’s happier than he could’ve been in any other circumstances. Because, yeah, maybe he wasted 25 years of his life denying and then hiding his sexuality, but now he’s living openly with a wonderful man who loves him. And he can learn cool facts like that.

Sam moves his hand to the back of his head and starts to comb Bucky's hair with his fingers. Bucky flashes a smile at Steve, just to show him it’s not a big deal. He unfolds the piece of trivia glued to his cup.

‘ _Marsha P. Johnson was an American gay liberation activist and one of the most prominent figures in the Stonewall Uprising. She was a black transgender woman and is thought to be an icon for the LGBT community._ ’

Sam smiles at him. ‘Yeah, she was a hero.’

‘I didn’t know about her either. I mean, I know a little about Stonewall, but I didn’t know her name.’

Sam shrugs a little. ‘People forget about her. Mostly because she was trans and black. You know if it was a white guy, we’d have dozens of movies about him already.’

‘That’s fucked up. I know I haven’t read a whole lot about it, but I’ve heard people talk about Stonewall, and I’ve never even heard them mention her name.’

Steve moves in his seat and raises the book that he’s been holding in his lap. ‘You should read more about LGBT history. It’s so interesting, I swear. I took this book off the shelf, you can borrow it if you want, the owners are cool with it. As long as you return it within the week.’

Bucky takes the book from Steve and looks at the title: ‘ _Stonewall: the riots that sparked the gay revolution_ ’.

‘Yeah, thanks, Stevie. That’s a great idea, actually.’

Sam nods his head at that. ‘Hey, we could watch a documentary, if you want. There’s a bunch of them now. About Stonewall, LGBT history in ancient Greece, medieval times, Victorian times… whatever you want.’

‘There’s even ones about LGBT history in the thirties and forties,’ Steve adds, grinning. ‘We could watch that, pick up everything they got wrong.’

Bucky leans back in his seat and laughs. ‘Yeah. Yeah, that sounds fun.’

* * *

**5\. going to pride events**

‘Fuck, it’s hot.’

‘Only cause I’m here.’

Bucky groans at the terrible joke and moves to pinch Sam on his bare forearm. He yelps and jumps back, rubbing at the spot.

‘You’re rude, Barnes, you know that? I don’t know why I bring you anywhere with me.’

Bucky bows his head to press a delicate kiss to the spot on Sam’s forearm he just pinched. ‘Because you love me.’

When he looks up at Sam, he’s smiling again, warm and fond. ‘Yeah, I do.’

It really is hot, so hot Bucky wants to melt and stick to the pavement until it’s winter again. There’s also thousands of people around them, all pressed up together. And most of them don’t smell good, is the thing.

Suddenly, Natasha and Sharon resurface from the crowd and walk towards them hand in hand. Sharon’s holding a bunch of small flags in her outreached palm.

‘Here, got you guys this.’

Bucky grabs the bi flag and passes it to Sam, and then takes the rainbow flag and gives it a small wave, just to try it out. It’s cute, he decides. And he likes it.

He studies Nat and Sharon; while they were gone, they got someone to draw a rainbow on Nat’s cheek. Sharon got a trans and bi buttons and pinned them to her t-shirt. There’s also a yellow flower in her hair. Where the fuck did they find all that?

‘Where’s everyone?’ he asks instead.

‘Wanda should be here in ten minutes, I just talked to her and she was getting off her train,’ Sharon explains. ‘Maria is with the veterans group, but she’ll join us later. And Steve’s on his way, I saw him with a bi flag wrapped around his shoulders earlier.’

Bucky snickers at that, imagining Fox News trying to explain Captain America literally wearing a bisexual flag for New York City Pride.

‘God, that’s going to be amazing.’

They flop down on a small bench, waiting for the rest of their friends to show up. Nat takes a water bottle out of her purse and they pass it around, all taking small sips. It’s still fucking hot. Sam throws his arm across Bucky’s shoulders and strokes his fingers through his hair idly, like he’s not even aware he’s doing it. Bucky lets his head fall back and enjoys the pleasant, absent-minded sensation of being touched so gently. He looks around and sees thousands of faces. Everyone looks so much different; men and women and other amazing people, with hair black and blonde and dyed dozens of beautiful colours. Chubby girl smiling wildly at her girlfriend, buff Asian man wearing a t-shirt with a trans flag, someone with short, blonde hair, dark skin, and a brilliant, long dress.

Bucky doesn’t know why it’s so hard for people to understand it, to understand them. It makes perfect sense to him. Everyone is different, everyone is brilliant. It’s easy.

‘You okay?’ Sam says, pressing his lips to his cheek.

‘Yeah, sweetheart, I’m great.’

Sam doesn’t answer, just smiles. It’s not like they need words at this point.

Steve arrives from around the corner. Sharon wasn’t lying; the bi flag is draped across his shoulders like a cape. And he’s smiling like he’s just won the lottery.

‘Let’s go! Nat, why does your t-shirt say _farm lesbian_? Since when do you own a farm?’

Sam stands up first and grabs Bucky’s hands to pull him up. He doesn’t let go of it when Bucky’s up, just squeezes it.

‘Ready, baby?'

‘Of course.’

He intertwines their fingers and flashes Sam a smile.

'After you, sweetheart.'

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading this ❤️ many tropes from this fic are headcanons me and my friend Erica came up with ages ago, so this is dedicated to Erica. i love you and you're an amazing friend!
> 
> here's huge heads up about part 4: i'm not American. i'm from Eastern Europe so my LGBT history is very much different from yours. i've read a lot about Stonewall Uprising, but if there's something i got wrong, please let me know. also uhhhh, english isn't my first langauge so... let me know how many grammar mistakes i made
> 
> i don't think i had the time to mention this in the fic, but in my mind Steve is bisexual, Wanda and Maria are lesbians, and Sharon is trans :))
> 
> title is from the song 'love is blind' from the musical Falsettos. it tells the story of a gay man who tries to be with his lover and raise his child with his ex-wife in the seventies. 
> 
> talk to me on tumblr: mlmsamwilson.tumblr.com
> 
> Pride Month is a very exciting, fun time, but if you can, support the LGBT community in any way you can. LGBT organizations always need volunteers, advocate for our community, tell people about our history!
> 
> LGBT organizations that you can donate to:
> 
> * Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS  
> * Sylvia Rivera Law Project  
> * Black & Pink  
> * Immigrant Equality  
> * National Centre for Transgender Equality
> 
> please comment and validate me lfkmakgmfglkafgl


End file.
